Detailed Reviews [French TV - 2020 - "Stories Without Fingerprints"]

Prolusion. US band French TV have been providers of high quality progressive rock for almost 40 years at this point, with a large back catalogue of albums that all people with an interest in progressive rock with a bit more of an expressive attitude should take the time to get more familiar with at some point. The album "Stories Without Fingerprints" dates back to 2020, and was released on their own label Pretentious Dinosaur Records.

Analysis. French TV is generally described as being a band that explores the section of the progressive rock universe sorted under the avant and RIO tags. Which may put some people off, as quite a lot of progressive rock sorted under those categories can be rather hard to digest and challenging to decode. French TV isn't among those bands however, at least not on this specific album. The compositions are instrumental and often fairly long though, but as far as bands categorized under the avant and related descriptions go they are among the easier ones to listen to. This double album with material more or less recorded live in the studio is a very easygoing affair in many ways, with floating and soaring melody lines and instrument soloing given a lot of playtime but with space and room for occasional quirky and whimsical escapades. The most difficult task for most listeners will be to sort all the impressions. A running tendency throughout this album is how the band alternates between various forms of jazzrock oriented escapades and passages with a bit more of a symphonic progressive rock orientation. Rather than merely exploring one or the other the band will more often than not opt to create landscapes where elements of these two forms blend into each other and bleed over to each other, for instance with a dramatic keyboard solo run imposed on top of a foundation that has a bit more of a jazzrock orientation to it. Ranging from smooth and elegant affairs to driving, tight and energetic ones, with retro flirts using the classic organ and guitar combination a part of the totality too, the variation provided within these landscapes is a broad one. Several compositions will also feature what I often will describe as Crimsonian touches, using floating otherworldly textures of a kind and a nature I will always associate with the works of King Crimson and Robert Fripp, and on the cuts that feature the violin references to both folk music and a band like Kansas is something of a given. When French TV on occasion hits landscapes of a more challenging nature, associations to bands such as Gentle Giant will find their way into my thoughts as well. That we also get quirkier and more expressive sections here is natural given the band's historical reference as an avant unit, and we also get some occasional escapades with a more dramatic and intense guitar riff and guitar solo presence dominating the landscapes, and given the often smooth and elegant sound that is a recurring trait throughout details of that nature have quite the dramatic and tension inducing impact.

Conclusion. French TV is one of those bands where, to my knowledge at least, you will just about always get a quality product in your hands when they have something ready to be released. This double album is a good example, and if instrumental progressive rock that combines elements from jazzrock and symphonic progressive rock and adds in a number of more or less subtle detours along the way sounds like a good thing for you this double feature is as good a place to start exploring this band as anything else.

Progmessor: March 2022
The Rating Room